Why Nicole Farhi is past its prime

The fashion world is full of newer labels and designers that do what Nicole Farhi once did but better, writes Luke Leitch.


Nicole Farhi is not yet quite kaput. But should it fail to recover in the intensive care unit of administration a post-mortem will reveal three combined causes of death; complacency, mismanagement, and the rise of younger, hungrier competitors.

The rot probably set in before Farhi and her ex-husband Stephen Marks sold out of the business in 2010.

Long gone, by then, were the days when Farhi epitomised a languid, easy, but self-consciously intellectual elegance that was so beloved of Hampstead ladies in the 1990s.

Farhi's own persona was, in its time, terribly compelling: this vintage Porsche driving, unruly-haired French expatriate was a designer who didn't tell women what to wear, but how to be - and that was to be rather like her.

Farhi's café and shop on New Bond Street were for a time an extension of the Almeida Theatre and River Café circuit, and the clothes - predominantly loose, tasteful separates for both men and women fitted the clientele perfectly.

But tastes change, and in fashion you have to work hard to stay abreast of them.

By 2010 Farhi, who married the playwright David Hare in 1992, had neither built a large enough bedrock of core clientele to survive upon, nor succeeded in attracting a new audience - hence that sale. Since then, two further owners have also failed to translate Farhi's profile into sales.

Despite a lot of sentimental goodwill towards the label, several of its key stockists have dropped the brand. Draper's magazine reported one boutique owner lamenting a "gradual decline in standards" of the clothes. In the same February article it quoted Farhi's chief executive François Steiner, who said the company was: "unambiguously focusing all our efforts into transforming this brand into what it is".

The problem with this strange-sounding strategy, however, is that there are now other labels that do what Farhi once did, but better. If you want metropolitan French designer daywear, there is Vanessa Bruno - and more accessible versions by Sandro or Maje. And if you want purist's clothes, simply-cut classics that make you look like a clever clogs, then there is Margaret Howell or Paul Smith.

The laying low of Nicole Farhi is particularly unfortunate for its recently appointed designer, Joanna Sykes - because she was at the helm of Aquascutum when it went into administration too. Sykes, though, is a talented designer whose time will come. But Nicole Farhi, although a name that still resonates, feels like a label whose time has passed.